World IN BRIEF : CHINA : Crime Rate Linked to Western Culture

China’s chief justice vowed to crack down on severe criminal offenders, blaming “the infiltration of decadent Western ideology and culture” for exacerbating the national crime rate. Ren Jianxin, president of the Supreme People’s Court, resurrected the Marxist theory of class struggle to justify a harsh anti-crime campaign that sent hundreds to the execution grounds last year. Authorities have vowed to continue the crackdown. Writing in the state-run Guangming Daily, Ren called China’s courts “the tool of the people’s democratic dictatorship.”